Monday, April 25, 2005

This one comes courtesy of... well, I don't know where it started, really, but I swiped it from the industrious elves over at The Generik Brand. Basically, it's a list of 30 bands/artists you've seen live. I think I'm supposed to take bands from someone else's list and then add my own, but that's too complicated, so I just made a new list. Mine is in no particular order, except that I've tried to put the bigger names toward the top so you all don't have to slog through the legions of unsigned local bands you've never heard of. So, here it is in all its glory. Try not to laugh at some of them...

Friday, April 15, 2005

A new music meme has been making the round. And, lordy, I'm not one to pass up a good music meme. Here we go...

The Music Meme

1. Total volume of music files on my computer:

Since I'm doing this from my work computer, I'm proud to report it's 7.42 GB, made up of 1,488 songs lasting 3 days, 19 hour, 52 minutes and 24 seconds.

2. The Last CD I bought was:

Um.... Uh.... I guess it was "The Eminem Show." There must've been something more recent... Hmmm...

3. The Last Song I Listened To Before Writing This:

"That Old Sweet Roll" by Dusty Springfield. "Dusty in Memphis" is a classic album.

3b. Song I'm Listening to Now/First Song That Came Up On Shuffle:

"True" by Concrete Blonde. Their self-titled debut album is one of my all-time essential discs. It made a deep impact on me when it came out.

(Note: While typing the above answer, the next song came up on shuffle. It's "The Fish Cheer & I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag" by Country Joe and the Fish. While I love the song, my iTunes insists on bringing it up on shuffle at every opportunity. Is my computer secretly a hippie?)

4. Five Songs I Listen To A Lot:

Thanks to iTunes accurate stats-keeping, here are my top five most-played songs, plus one that just barely missed the cut, but warrants a mention anyway:

1. "Sister Christian" by Night Ranger. Laugh if you must, I love how full of cheesy goodness it is. Which is why I got such a laugh out of the scene with it in "Boogie Nights." That coked-up air-keyboarding dude is me, man. Only with Coca-Cola, not the other kind of coke. Really.

2. "The Fish Cheer & I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag" by Country Joe and the Fish See? What did I tell you about my computer's secret love for this song? Maybe it just wants to thwart me by blasting out the "F-U-C-K" cheer whenever my coworkers are around.

3. "Gamen (Vulture)" by Garmarna A blistering rock version of an old Scandanavian folk song, courtesy of these Norwegian musical archivists/revisionists. It's the opening cut of their "Vengeance" album -- seek it out.

4. "Just Dropped In" by Kenny Rogers and the First Edition Another great old song made even better by its inclusion in a classic movie scene, this time from "The Big Lebowski." I still have a hard time believing this comes from the same guy who gave us "The Gambler" and "Through the Years," but that just adds to its appeal for me.

5. "Crazy Train" by Ozzy Osbourne Hands down, the greatest metal song ever. Ever! If I were a Major League closer, this would be my entrance music, although I think someone's already using it. (Billy Wagner? Jason Isringhausen? I forget.) But as much as I love "Crazy Train," I have to swear by the Dodger-blue blood that runs through Tommy Lasorda's veins that the best closer/entrance music combination has to be Eric Gagné's "Welcome to the Jungle." Magical and intense to witness in person. To quote the bobblehead from last year's Dodgers commercials, "GAGNE RAWKS!!!"

6. "Giant Robot-Birdhead" by the Aquabats Currently, this is just one play away from cracking my top five, but I had to include it just because I love it so much. For a while now, I've been trying to think of a good mixed CD theme to use this with, and I think I've finally found it. Maybe I'll use it for the next mix exchange. We'll see.

Thursday, April 07, 2005

Far be it from me to wait beyond the second game of the season to evaluate this year's new-look Dodgers, so here I go...

• Mark my words, Jose Valentin will lose his starting job by midseason. I'm hoping Jim Tracy and Paul DePodesta will spare us all the agony and just give the third base position to Norihiro Nakamura now rather than later. I'm glad Nakamura showed the good judgement of agreeing to accept his Triple-A assignment rather than returning to Japan. He'll be back just as soon as Valentin's worn out his welcome.

• Remember the name Jason Repko. The new kid's going to make some noise before the season's out.

• New radio announcer Charley Steiner is a good addition, but he needs to stop talking about the Yankees (his old employer) so much.

• Milton Bradley seems to have turned himself around in the off-season and emerged as a clubhouse leader. I just hope he can keep it up.

• Say what you will about the signings of Valentin and Jeff Kent, but with them the Dodgers are quietly amassing the most formidible collection of porn star mustaches around.

• This team is built to win, no matter how much the L.A. Times writers insist on picking on DePodesta and the McCourts over (mostly) pointless matters.